Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
by Queen of the Girl Scouts
Summary: Their relationship was perfect only in its imperfections. — Azula x Ty Lee. O/S. Edited Repost.


A/N: Another repost on my drabble account, with some edits.

* * *

 **(1) tumble**

Eight year old Ty Lee teaches Princess Azula to climb a tree, and is subsequently pushed out of said tree.

They stand in the courtyard, bored senseless, during the hot Fire Nation summer in which they have nothing to do all day. Azula sits on a rock, writing her name in smoke over and over again as Mai tells some infinitely boring story that the princess does not listen to. Ty Lee starts climbing the cherry tree, moving like a tiger-monkey, and she dangles from her knees with her braid swinging in the wind.

"Why do you insist on being upside down all the time?" Mai asks quietly and Azula is snapped out of her reverie, red flame on her fingertip extinguished.

"It's so her brain can work. She's not that smart so her head needs extra blood in it," Azula replies instantly, not missing a beat. Mai chuckles as Ty Lee briefly frowns, before quickly changing it into a smile.

"Don't you ever climb trees, princess?" Ty Lee asks, reaching upwards and sitting on the thickest branch. Azula purses her lips and Mai knows that this can only go downhill from here.

"It's not really a _dignified_ thing to do," she says, although she stares at the tree with envy. Ty Lee grins at the sight of Azula's longing to climb the off-white branches.

"I'll teach you how," Ty Lee says, jumping down. She lands on her feet and the vibrations of hitting the ground reverberate through her small body.

"You're going to die, Ty Lee," Mai says, raising an eyebrow. But she is incredibly interested in how this is going to play out.

Azula walks to the tree and reaches for one of the branches. Ty Lee examines her with protuberant eyes before moving to her arms and adjusting them, hoisting her slightly with surprising strength. And Azula slowly but surely, by the overly enthusiastic impromptu lessons of Ty Lee they both arrive on a branch.

"Well done," Mai says sarcastically and Azula gives her a vicious glare. She simply rolls her eyes in response.

"It's not that bad up here," Azula says, picking a blossom off of her shoulder and burning it. Ty Lee watches the grey ashes swirl to the ground.

"I'm glad I could teach you," Ty Lee says with a small smile. She seizes Azula's hand and holds it. Azula squints at her for a moment.

And then promptly pushes her off of the branch.

A fourteen year old Ty Lee teaches Azula to pitch a tent, and is subsequently kicked out of said tent.

"I'm cold and I'm wet and let's just go find Zuko," Mai complains loudly, shivering.

"Well, I'm sorry that you weren't competent enough to handle two water peasants," Azula snaps, looking at the oiled canvas tarp with rage. "Now someone tell me how we put this up and we'll go after the Avatar."

"You have to be smarter than the tent, Azula," Mai says smugly, trying to warm herself around the crackling fire. "Alternatively, we could sleep in the tank."

"We're sleeping in this tent. And I'm going to put it up." Azula runs her hands through the fabric and suddenly a metal pole is placed in her hand. She senses the scent of cinnamon and realizes it is Ty Lee.

"You need these," she says, holding up metal poles.

Azula raises an eyebrow. "What do _you_ know about putting up tents?"

"I lived in a circus for a year. I can put up a tent. I'll show you how," Ty Lee says excitedly, like a toddler who is glad to be _helping_. Azula clenches her jaw.

"Alright, how do I put up a tent?" Azula asks derisively. Mai chuckles.

Ty Lee helps Azula put up the tent, much to the princess's chagrin. In the end, the three girls lie inside, Mai and Ty Lee finally dry, and Azula wide awake between them.

"Do you remember when you pushed me out of a tree?" Ty Lee whispers, apparently also up.

"Somewhat," Azula replies airily.

"You know," Mai says, rolling onto her side. Apparently no one is sleeping despite their important task. "I heard that when you do stuff like that, it means you have a crush on them."

"Ty Lee, out of the tent!" Azula orders and Ty Lee's jaw drops.

"It was her who said that," Ty Lee whines, but she gives in.

And Ty Lee sleeps in the tank. She thinks about what Mai said, and how it was mostly directed at Ty Lee, who has confided in Mai that she has had a crush on Azula since they were kids. She wonders if Azula is the kind of person who will tug on your braid if they want to kiss you.

Twenty-one year old Ty Lee gets hit on in a bar, and is subsequently kicked out of said bar.

"Here, let me show you this dance," Ty Lee says, seizing her girlfriend. Azula composes herself as she is dragged into a sea of expensive red clothes and the scent of liquor, smoke and sweat.

As they spin around, Azula picks the steps up incredibly quickly.

Ty Lee remarks, "You're a fast learner."

"I know," Azula replies, hands slipping to Ty Lee's waist. The skirts of their dresses brush against each other as they dance. "You're an... adequate teacher. The positive encouragement, I could use less of."

Smirk.

As they break apart, Ty Lee walks to get more drinks as Azula sits in the corner. She did not agree to this date. She squints as she sees her girlfriend blush and twirl her hair. And then she sees her being handed free drinks and Azula jumps up and walks directly to the bar counter.

"Are you hitting on my girlfriend?" Azula demands, grabbing the sleazy man by the front of his shirt. His eyes bulge in terror.

"I didn't-didn't know she─"

"Do you know who I _am_?"

"Azula, please stop," Ty Lee murmurs, humiliated.

"You're Princess Azula?" the man stammers, his eyes wide as Azula clings to his shirt.

And with a flash of blue, Ty Lee finds herself kicked out of the bar.

Azula is most certainly the type of person who will tug on your braid when they want to kiss you.

 **(2) lightning**

Ty Lee stands on the steel ship on the way home from Ba Sing Se. Azula reigned victorious, sitting upon the Earth King's throne and relishing in her accomplishment. Ty Lee watched as the walls tumbled down, guided by Azula's new pets, the Dai Li. And Ty Lee reached for her hand as they watched the stone collapsed, powerful, unattainable walls falling at the silver tongue of a teenager. And the Fire Nation soldiers stormed the city for the first time in history.

And more importantly to Ty Lee than their victory against the Earth Kingdom and Avatar, for the first time, Azula did not slip her fingers away.

Azula is training in the frigid sea wind as they cross the ocean to the Fire Nation. She has just taunted Zuko about betraying Uncle to a level of satisfaction, and now she needs to clear her mind before she arrives home as a war hero, the ultimate dream of hers. But life stops for no one, and Azula's training to be the perfect weapon is her entire life.

Ty Lee watches the lightning on Azula's fingertips, and to Azula, everything else has gone away. There is harmony, logic and peacefulness as she goes through familiar motions with the neon blue lights. Sometimes, when Ty Lee watches the blue lights, she feels almost the same way, entirely engrossed and intoxicated.

The princess clearly does not notice Ty Lee.

Azula moves to the side and casually points her arm out over the ocean. The lightning floats off into nowhere, finding nothing to collide with. She looks up, out of her focused daze, and sees her friend. Maybe more than friend, though she would not admit it even under torture.

Ty Lee walks to her slowly.

"Lightning is probably the prettiest thing I've ever seen," she says blithely, walking to the bow of the ship and leaning over the side. At first, Azula does not move. Then, slowly she approaches and stands beside her friend. Their bodies nearly touch, heat rising from them in an uncomfortably arousing manner.

"It's a deadly weapon," Azula purrs cavalierly, correcting the moron. Ty Lee purses her lips and widens her sparkling, protuberant eyes, as if she were a baby animal. It is the same face she would make when she did not want to be called on in class.

Azula does not tell her that she entirely agrees.

"It's cold out," Ty Lee remarks, squinting at the clouds. "But weirdly warm."

"A storm is coming in," Azula replies casually, tapping her fingernails on the side of the ship. The sound from it is chilling and familiar, sharp nails colliding with metal impatiently.

"When it rains, it pours," Ty Lee says softly, leaning over further. Hesitantly, Azula pulls her back; she looked on the verge of falling in. Ty Lee chokes and blushes at the slender hands on her bare abdomen. "Do you remember the storm in Ba Sing Se?"

"Well, it was only a week ago," Azula says, outstretching her arm and studying her tensed hand. Ty Lee does not expect eye contact from the princess. "You revealed that you were so _afraid_ of thunderstorms."

Ty Lee laughs and Azula does not know why. "You said you would hit me with lightning if I didn't go back to sleep and stop screaming at every sound of thunder."

Azula smirks and Ty Lee feels fuzzy. "I think I would have. I don't like my beauty sleep uninterrupted by whining." Shrug.

They stand in silence for some time. The storm starts to roll over the royal ship, black clouds looming in the sky.

"Are you going to get scared and sneak into my bed?" Azula asks mockingly before realizing the implications in her words. But she does not correct herself.

If it were with anyone but Ty Lee, there would not be unwanted implications.

"Only if you want me to," Ty Lee replies with a small smile. "I can tell my children that I shared a bed with the conqueror of Ba Sing Se during a violent storm."

Azula pauses, contemplating the proper response. "You might want to leave out some of the details of your time with Princess Azula the Conqueror."

"I have one detail I might leave out, Princess Azula the Conqueror," Ty Lee says, trying to be brave. But she is so afraid. Her heart palpitates as she speaks. Azula smirks, raising an eyebrow.

"And what might that be?" she purrs icily.

"This one." Ty Lee leans forward and presses her lips against Azula's. It's a risky move, but they _are_ alone, and she is pretty sure Azula was making some heavy implications.

Azula pulls away as the kiss breaks. She looks entirely unfazed by it as she leans in and kisses Ty Lee hard on the mouth as thunder cracks on the horizon, lightning flashing bright and bold. The ship rocks uncomfortably as the sky opens up with rain.

Their tongues touch as hands slip where they should not. The pouring rain pounding against their bodies as they press together.

It ends with Ty Lee breathless and Azula looking amused, a wicked gleam in her eyes.

She starts to walk away, their clothes soaking by the end of their frantic motions that they will regret tomorrow. Azula turns back, tossing one of her bangs calmly.

"You might want to come inside; you're just a walking lightning rod out here."

Ty Lee dashes inside as thunder crackles with a flash of yellow as Azula stands still for a moment.

The conqueror of Ba Sing Se smirks.

Azula feels electric tonight.

 **(3) perfume**

"Why would you want to smell like food?" Azula asks, wrinkling her nose. Ty Lee sprays herself incessantly with cinnamon perfume, which smells like fire gummies and nothing else. It must be made for _children_ or something.

Ty Lee glances up. They are expected to attend an event about the conquering of Ba Sing Se, and Zuko is sulking with Mai about it elsewhere. Azula, on the other hand, is getting ready in a red dress, with her hair done up in a more formal golden crown in place of red. Ty Lee is half dressed, not being able to decide on an outfit, after trying on half of Azula's clothes. Azula tries not to stare at the body of her friend, because they have decided to be _just friends_.

"I think it smells nice," Ty Lee says with a soft shrug, daring to disagree with Princess Azula.

"Isn't the point of perfume to smell _sexy_? Nothing is sexy about food," Azula says sharply, trying to tie the back of her dress on her own. This is what servants are for. Ty Lee leaps up uninvited and starts to tie it, light tan hands against hot pallid skin as Azula squirms slightly. It feels good and it should not.

"Solved!" Ty Lee acts like it was an outstandingly challenging puzzle. Azula simply purses her rosy lips. Again without asking permission of her superior, Ty Lee leans in and smells Azula's neck. Gulp. "Your perfume smells like fear."

Azula's eyes flash. Ty Lee then cringes as if something was thrown at her, but Azula laughs. She seems to think it is genuinely funny.

"That's intentional." It isn't. She is lying.

Later that night, they return from the stuffy event and Azula walks into the courtyard. Ty Lee follows her, in a good mood since the special occasion. Zuko and Mai walked out halfway through, leaving Azula and Ty Lee to deal with streams of honored guests.

Ty Lee was mentioned as a hero of the Fire Nation, although she was not exactly _instrumental_ in Azula's success.

Azula steps between the flowers and kicks off her pointed heels. They are much more uncomfortable than the array of footwear she can bend in. Barefoot is better; there's a reason Agni Kai's are done half clothed.

"You look really amazing in dresses," Ty Lee says, the fifth superfluous compliment of the night. Azula honestly never gets tired of her ego being stroked.

The princess spins in the dark, in the pale moonlight. "I have to admit I'm pleased with my reception. They call me _savior_. Tonight wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

Ty Lee grins, carelessly, recklessly. She walks to Azula and takes her hands, and Azula's first instinct is to burn her. But Ty Lee starts spinning with her, and they twirl in the moonlight. Ty Lee still smells strongly of cinnamon, and Azula smells like pure terror.

Honestly, they both like each other's scent. Azula thinks she read that people who are attracted to each other are receptive to the smell of the object of their affection. She sincerely hopes that is not true. But she keeps spinning with Ty Lee, nostrils filled with fire gummy aroma.

"You like the attention, don't you?" Azula asks as they slowly break apart. Ty Lee wishes Azula would just pull her back, but she stands straight and reluctant in the damp grass.

"I don't mind it," Ty Lee says with a small smile. Azula shrugs. "Okay, yeah, I _really_ like it. But sometimes I feel like it's going to come crashing down."

"Why?" Azula asks coldly. Ty Lee shifts her weight between her feet.

"Because that happens every time. Every time something is in my grasp, it just gets yanked away." The implications in her words fill Azula with discomfort.

"You're talking about me, aren't you?" Azula disapproves, but she entertains the notion. Watching Ty Lee be as uncomfortable with the state of their relationship as her gives a certain pleasure. _At least I'm not taking it as hard as_ you _._

Ty Lee does not respond.

"You're going to walk away at some point," Ty Lee says, turning her palms up and shrugging. She tries to look as if it is _positive_.

Azula hesitates, contemplating her options. And she walks forward, slowly, knowing she will regret this for the rest of her life.

"Then kiss me before I go," Azula orders.

Of course, Azula's subservient friend complies.

Utter confusion for the both of them.

 **(4) violent**

She burnt her and it felt like a kiss.

The only question people ask Ty Lee is, "Why do you stay?" as if she has never asked herself that before. Maybe it is because she has never loved anyone like she loved Azula. The way she moves, the way her cold voice purrs, the way that she says such sweet things with a silver tongue. Ty Lee does not care about violence, because her bliss comes in the package of a girl who finds violence more comfortable than expressing her feelings.

 _"You betrayed me."_

Azula returns to the palace surrounded by the guards Zuko appointed to watch her. She lives in a prison without bars, surrounded by the whispers of citizens and friends alike. Slowly, she became apathetic to her cage, and when she captivated the Kyoshi Warrior, she found a cellmate in her life of captivity.

 _"I didn't mean it. It was six years ago."_

"I bought you this," Azula says to Ty Lee, who sits in the courtyard sipping tea and examining flowers as if they are interesting. Azula often thinks about burning this entire garden into ash, but she restrains herself.

She hands Ty Lee an expensive golden necklace with a pink stone embedded in it. And Ty Lee jumps to her feet and presses her lips against Azula's, exchanging the taste of citrus tea and bloody, dry lips. As if the gift is not a bribe to forget about the bandages on her arm. They smell of the metallic scented burn cream; smells like those she wounded while training, or like Zuko when he was burned and banished.

It is almost as familiar a smell as Ty Lee's cinnamon perfume. But Azula does not think she is in the wrong. Ty Lee is hers and she can do what she wants with her possessions, no matter what goody-goody Zuko complains about.

"It's beautiful. Put it on me! Wait, we need to find a mirror." Ty Lee seizes Azula by the hand and drags her to a vanity table in their shared bedroom. She hands Azula the necklace and Azula unclasps it with her sharp, pointed fingernails. She drapes it over Ty Lee's neck and then quickly tightens it, a moment of exerting power. Ty Lee does not flinch, but she squeezes her eyes shut.

Azula does it out of love; Ty Lee knows it.

She pretended to strangle her and it felt like a kiss.

Azula clasps it around her neck and Ty Lee touches it with gentle fingers. She stands up and embraces Azula tightly, nearly suffocating her girlfriend. Delicate kisses that are not as violent as Azula lashing out like a cruel tyrant.

Ty Lee pulls away, still beaming. Azula feels satisfied with her work.

 _"I'm not going to apologize for the way I live my life, Zuko."_

"You do such nice things for me," Ty Lee says, in her blissful ignorance.

"I'm a generous person," Azula purrs as Ty Lee strokes her hair.

"Generous like when you told your father that Zuko killed the Avatar," Ty Lee says and Azula frowns briefly. But after her eyes flicker, her expression returns to amicable.

"Not quite." Azula kisses her before she can respond to it. Ty Lee's hands slip around her waist as she backs up to the bed, falling backwards and taking what is unreciprocated.

 _"Why do I even stay with you, Azula?"_

As Azula's hands brush against the bandage, she feels an alien twinge of remorse. But Ty Lee considers it a simple side effect of being in love with Princess Azula.

Azula burnt Ty Lee and it felt like a kiss.

 **(5) nightmares**

Every night Ty Lee dreams of fire. It starts in a net and moves on from that, slowly engulfing everything she loves. The dreams recur endlessly, and she has to make up excuses to the other warriors for why she has woken up screaming. A bed no longer on fire, no real smoke in her hair, though she could swear she feels and smells it. The dreams intoxicate her, leaving an oddly and disturbingly erotic feeling in her mouth and bones.

Every time, the fire is blue.

But tonight, the nightmares don't come. She wakes up hot, burning, as if she has caught fire despite her dreamless slumber. And when she looks beside her, she thinks she has put the puzzle together. She was never that intelligent; Mai was the idea person and Azula was the genius. However, this is simple.

She looks beside her and sees a sleeping form next to her after going dry for a year when she found herself incapable of having more than one night stands with no connection. When she woke up beside boys and girls she did not know, she would sneak away and never learn their name.

But, for the first time in a long time, she wakes up beside someone she knows.

Princess Azula.

Princess Azula, who returned two years ago, after dashing off in that valley the name of which escapes Ty Lee's careless mind, and surrendered. Said she found being on the run from just about everyone to be harder than she anticipated. Better to turn herself in than to be dragged in by someone unworthy of defeating her, like the water peasant. She was clearly lying, but no one protested.

The sunlight through the window reflects on Azula's skin in, glistening and pale. Ty Lee relaxes beside her, though when Ty Lee arrived the princess seemed displeased to see her. Gave a purring, chilling monologue about her isolation and subsequent destruction at Ty Lee's hands, but Ty Lee kissed her hard on the mouth and they fell together as if nothing had happened.

Ty Lee walks her fingers up Azula's bare arm in the morning light.

It wakes up the princess, her eyes fluttering open. She seems to register where she is as Ty Lee does not says a word. They do not need to say anything as Azula pulls away and starts getting dressed.

"I assume you leave tomorrow?" Azula asks icily, as if they did not spend hours intertwined in the night that belonged to them.

"Yeah," Ty Lee whispers, thinking of her brief visit home with Suki, Sokka and a few others. "I wish I could stay."

Azula shrugs. "It was fun while it lasted." Pointed yawn.

And Ty Lee recalls how impossible the princess is. She sees that several broken years, and her casual anger at being Zuko's ward have not tempered her narcissism and superiority complex. But that's what Ty Lee masochistically fell in love with.

"I wanted to say something, before I... before you tell me to sneak out so no one knows you were with me," Ty Lee says hesitantly. "Just that I love you."

Azula smirks. "I know."

Ty Lee returns to her home on Kyoshi Island, but she is not a stranger to her old friend.

When she walks, sometimes, she dreams of fire. Trees incinerate and she can almost sense the acrid stench. Oceans burn azure atop of sea green.

The nightmares don't go away.

But it gives her a reason to go visit Azula, to get slight reprieve from imaginary burning mattresses.

 **(6) lights**

"I can't sleep with the lights off," Ty Lee squeals as Azula quenches the flame in the lantern.

It is their first sleepover and they are nine. The girls both lie on Azula's bed, and Azula is prepared to fall asleep, which is _why_ she turned out the light, but now Ty Lee is clinging onto her in absolute terror. Azula never was afraid of the dark; what is _in_ the dark, however, can be frightening.

"If you insist," Azula sighs, relighting the lantern. It sways on the gilded rope from the force of her flame. And Ty Lee falls asleep almost instantaneously, as Azula lies awake for some time with her eyes closed, _enjoying_ her hereditary insomnia.

In time, Azula becomes used to sleeping with the lights on. She even starts doing it herself, and Mai does not care either way. It is all because Ty Lee was afraid of the dark, though Azula does not admit that to her mother or father. And especially not _Zuko_.

And five years later, when Azula returns to the Fire Nation with Ty Lee on orders of her father to head his drill project, the three girls share Azula's room once more. The exhaustion from the pursuit of Zuko and the Avatar has caught up with the three of them, but they still try to force themselves to stay awake.

They finish talking about everything and nothing, delaying tomorrow with nostalgia and scathing remarks, and, finally, Azula closes her eyes.

"I can't sleep with the lights on," Ty Lee squeals and Azula's eyes flicker open.

"Mai and I acclimated ourselves to sleeping with the lights on, solely for you, and now you want to sleep in the dark?" Azula exclaims, possibly waking the entire palace.

Mai rolls over and closes her eyes. She wants absolutely nothing to do with this.

"I got used to sleeping with the lights out." Ty Lee wrings her hands, displacing the single blanket they have over all three of them.

"Mai, lights on or off?" Azula demands and Mai sighs.

"I really don't care either way..." she murmurs, burying her face in one of the endless pillows.

"Then we're sleeping with the lights on. You'll simply have to deal with it."

Five years later, neither the princess or the object of her affections sleep with the lights on anymore. Supposedly, with maturity, comes less fear of the dark. But what is _in_ the dark, can be both frightening and thrilling.

Azula presses her lips against Ty Lee's neck with passionate force. Fingertips slipping in the light of a variety of candles, some old, some new. She fumbles with her clothes, the illicit frantic moment behind the scenes of Fire Lord Zuko's court, and pushes Ty Lee onto the bed.

Some of the candles turn out and Ty Lee shakes her head. Azula stops moving to straddle her.

"Leave the lights on," she says softly. Azula pauses, not one to take orders even as Zuko's ward.

"How about some mood lighting?" Azula whispers, running a fingernail along Ty Lee's shoulder and towards her cleavage.

And the candles turn azure.

 **(7) reason**

Ty Lee is crying. And when she cries, she wails, and sobs and makes it as melodramatic as if her parents were just murdered. Azula can only ignore her, and ignore the fact that she was the one who prompted the tears.

"We're in public," Azula murmurs, looking at the other patrons of the bar. They whisper anyway, looking at the Fire Nation's famously insane princess and her lesbian bride. She did not mean to set Ty Lee off, and now she looks even more like a fool. "Let's just discuss this outside like adults."

Azula's fingertips are heated, but not lighted. She has enough control not to _humiliate_ herself, like her wife is taking the liberty of doing.

"I know I look ridiculous," Ty Lee screams, turning the necks of everyone who was not already staring

And Azula knows she thrives on the negative attention. Azula stands up, tossing pointless gold pieces onto the wooden table, and seizes Ty Lee by the wrist. The acrobat goes limp, allowing her wife to remove her from the scene she is making.

They stand outside, the sea wind whipping around the pier. It smells like salt and sweat and Azula does not know why she is even in this part of town. The ships from her childhood her absent; every dreadnought is dry-docked under the thumb of Fire Lord Zuko. And _crazy, crazy, crazy_ Azula is his precious ward after the little kitten princess had enough of fugitive life and came home.

"Why do you have to do this to me?" Azula demands icily, her voice dispassionate but her golden eyes lit up by rage and beauty. Ty Lee's lip trembles, her eyes sparkling like a baby animal's.

"You're the one who was saying such mean─"

"I can say what I want. That's the last freedom they haven't taken." And Azula turns on her heel, planning to abandon Ty Lee in the sketchiest part of the Capitol if that's how she wants to play it.

Ty Lee grabs Azula's arm with a ferocity that sends a surge of panic through veins that know abuse and the back of the prodigy's hand collides with the acrobat's face. Ty Lee stops crying, clearly shocked. And if that didn't draw attention to them, Azula does not know how it couldn't.

"I'm sorry," Ty Lee says, apologizing for Azula's actions as if they were her own.

Azula does not protest, but she changes her mind about abandoning Ty Lee and walks with her back to the palace. It has been a long night and if either of them could feel remorse, they would regret their actions. Fighting in public, Azula _hitting_ her wife as if she is not an articulate and sophisticated firebender.

They sleep together harshly, violently. There is no tender touch of tongues, simply embodied rage and competition, both achieving their own orgasms through force of each other's bodies. And Azula dreams of her father that night, wakes up, and trains firebending for hours.

In the morning, Ty Lee finds Mai eating breakfast alone.

"Where's Zuko?" Ty Lee demands, not wanting her brother-in-law to know about this. Mai looks up.

"Dealing with some boring agricultural things," Mai says with a pointed yawn. Ty Lee sits down.

"Why is Azula the way she is?"

"I have been asking myself that for a long time," Mai sighs and Ty Lee frowns.

"She hit me across the face last night," Ty Lee says and Mai thinks of the multitude of burns, the multitude of violence, but also the sweet tenderness of stroking hair and delicate kisses. She disapproves of their relationship, but she also, as sick as it is, knows that they love each other.

"Azula is controlling because she was controlled. She's abusive because she was abused," Mai says, the most honest answer she can think of.

Azula grew up to be her father.

 **(8) baby**

Azula cannot believe how something so perfect could come from such an imperfect body as hers. The trials of conception were hard enough, but the baby had to be royal. And Azula struggled with motherhood after her childhood and her own relationship with her parents, slowly resenting the infant inside of her.

Ty Lee is holding her hand, but she desperately wants to grab the baby. Fire Lord Zuko has his head between his knees like a wimp, and Mai is handing the baby to an exhausted Azula. She feels as if she has spent the entire day training with the flu, which she _has_ had to do multiple times as a youth.

When she holds the baby, it looks directly at her with piercing golden eyes. A girl. Staring, eerily alert and she sticks her tongue out as if tasting the air around her mother. Azula is frozen, her lips slightly parted and entirely unsure what to do. She just keeps her arms bent into the position that Mai put her in, and holds the life that she produced.

Azula always put a strong value on destroying life, but now, she has realized that there is merit to creating life as well.

"Oh, I love her, I love her!" Ty Lee squeals, bouncing impatiently. Slowly, Azula hands her daughter to her wife, who cradles the child with fervor. The newborn looks frightened, but she remains oddly quiet.

The wailing when she was born pierced Azula's ears and she felt the same surge of terror that she felt when the baby first kicked and came to life. She was not cut out for this kind of thing.

After Azula is clean and dressed, Mai leads her to one of the sofas in the seating area. Ty Lee is babbling to her newborn daughter already, and Uncle is here. Zuko sits, looking genuinely scared of Azula's baby, the same way he looked about his own crown princess.

"May I hold her?" Uncle asks and Azula assumed he was speaking to Ty Lee. But he was talking to Azula.

"If you're careful," Azula says, a tone of threat in her words. She despises her uncle and she hates that he is here, but is grateful that mother is not. She keeps wishing her father were here and not in the Capitol Prison, but she sits beside Mai, still overwhelmed with exhaustion.

Ty Lee hands the baby to Iroh and he chuckles. The newborn's eyes widen at the jiggling of the fat man's belly. And Ty Lee sits beside Azula, their bodies touching. She kisses her wife passionately and Azula closes her eyes.

Maybe this family thing won't be so bad.

Not to mention, if something were to _happen_ to ZuZu and his little family, then her daughter will become Fire Lord. That is _almost_ as good as Fire Lord Azula.

"She's perfect," Ty Lee whispers and Azula pauses. She thinks about her own desire for perfection and how it consumed her; it was eventually the end of her. Azula finds herself devastatingly imperfect. It wounds her every time she thinks about it.

"She's not ever going to be perfect," Azula says as Uncle attempts to give the newborn to Zuko. Zuko waves his hands frantically. "But we're going to love her regardless of her imperfections."

Ty Lee smiles faintly.

Azula did not grow up to be her father.

 **9) nails**

"Don't her nails... hurt?" Mai instantly knows she is going to regret this question.

Ty Lee looks momentarily stunned, and then confused. The conversation has taken an odd turn as they sit in a quaint restaurant by the pier. It has a wonderful view of all of the ships and the clientele is of a much higher class. Their conversation has managed to avoid Azula, which is _good_ , but then Mai said she had a question.

The aroma of spice and fish permeates the air as the two friends pick at their food. They were discussing relatively small matters, glad to be away from the palace and the politics of post-war. And then Mai decided to leave the comfort zone of sanity and ask about Azula's _nails_.

"Uh..." Ty Lee's face is as pink as her clothes. She does not know if Mai actually wants to know this or not. She usually demands to have _no_ details about what goes on in Ty Lee and Azula's bedroom.

"I mean, if I were with her, she'd have to clip them." And Mai digs herself deeper. She feels ridiculous as Ty Lee breaks out into a sweat. "Not that I want to be with Azula. Dating Azula sounds like a form of torture. But don't they?" Cringe.

"Well, she learned not to do that the hard way," Ty Lee starts, rubbing her neck. Mai realizes she is going to get an entire play by play of the sex life of her two best friends. People are starting to eavesdrop from other tables. Azula is going to kill them both. "It was a mistake. A painful mistake."

"So what do you do?" Mai asks, revolted by how curious she is. Ty Lee looks like she wants to disappear into the fabric of time itself. Mai is even worse than Azula when it comes to taking pleasure from making people uncomfortable.

"She has a tongue, you know?"

Silence.

 **10) title**

"Are you an acrobat or a contortionist?" Azula asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Kinda both?" Ty Lee offers with a small shrug.

"It's bothering me. Which are you?"

Ty Lee finds this pillow talk incredibly _unsexy_. They are lying together, intertwined, in Azula's bed. The curtains have been shut all day, basking the room in a red glow, as they both swelter. Ty Lee is not entirely sure if it is nighttime or daytime, and Azula is not making it easy to know the difference. Every time they try to pull away from each other, they just get dragged back in.

"I do both," Ty Lee says and Azula groans. Maybe they will not wind up in another round of orgasms. "I do like flips and also other twisty things..."

"You can't be both," Azula snaps. And then Ty Lee slowly realizes something. It is silly that she did not catch it at first.

"Just like I can't like boys too if I've spent the past day having sex with you."

Azula frowns. "We're discussing party tricks not sexuality. That's what you _do_ anyway. Party tricks."

She lies down, sweat soaked black hair splayed beneath her on the ruby pillow. Ty Lee touches her clavicle and Azula bats her hand away. _Hmph._

"I got paid for the circus stuff," Ty Lee says with a small shrug. But Azula seems quite adamant. "Well, which do you want me to be, princess?"

Azula is silent for a moment. She toys with the blankets, long, sharp fingernails glinting in the dim lamplight.

"Are we talking about the walking on your hands or sexuality?" Azula asks.

Ty Lee smirks. " _Both_."

"Well, then I'd like you to be a contortionist and your only sexual interest me," Azula says softly, raising an eyebrow. Ty Lee giggles. _Oh,_ how Azula loathes and longs for that ridiculous chiming laughter.

"I could _maybe_ do that," she says, elongating every vowel like a particularly giggly child. "I've always been more of an acrobat though."

"So you like boys better?" Now they are both confused.

"No. I like _you_ better," Ty Lee says and Azula does not know what to say. "I liked boys and I liked girls but I always liked you best."

"Better than that water peasant?"

"Oh, _please_ , Azula I aim _high_. I don't sleep with peasants. I'll settle for princess and above, thank you very much," Ty Lee says in her snootiest voice. Azula finds it disgustingly endearing.

"Well, you seem to be lacking in options with standards like that. Unless while I was asleep in Ba Sing Se you were in bed with King Kuei," Azula purrs icily, not displaying her relief at Ty Lee's words. She thinks this may be playful, but it is rooted in a genuine insecurity of hers.

"Maybe I was." Ty Lee kisses her. Azula hesitantly returns. "You don't actually believe that. I'm teasing you. Come on. Azula, please."

"You're not just going to one day find some _muscly guy_ as you put it?" Azula asks, her expression belying her mocking voice. Ty Lee is flattered that the princess cares if she would leave her; she was under the impression that she was just some kind of sexual interest. Not that she _dislikes_ being a sexual interest of Princess Azula.

"I'm _you_ sexual, Princess Azula." _And casually bisexual_.

"Now... about that contortionism..."

 **(11) entertain**

The princess watches the entertainer with great interest. Azula is apathetic to most everything, save for her firebending. She trains all day, sees tutors all evening and before she goes to bed, bears witness to the only thing that brings her joy. An exotic dancer. It is completely absurd.

The infatuation with a slave is incredibly far beneath the seventeen year old girl destined to be Fire Lord. She is meant to strip for Azula's father but Azula thinks she has fallen in love with her and the way she can contort her body. Azula can burn down the sky and fly on azure flames, but she cannot do the things the entertainer can do.

In the dead of the night, Azula sees her. She is walking through the halls and Azula does not know where she is going. Always, she has a faint smile on her lips, despite her enslavement. The princess follows her and her heart speeds up; Azula is bad news. She is behind the executions of more than one servant.

"Do you need something, princess?" The eyes of the entertainer sparkle. Her lips are small as she looks like a begging baby animal. Azula is captivated by how _sweet_ she can look when her days are occupied by sheer sensuality.

"What's your name?" And Ty Lee is surprised by Princess Azula's question. The princess pointedly does not recall names of others in order to display she is too good to know names.

"Um, Ty Lee," stammers the entertainer. Azula feels a small rush from the fear in her eyes, as she always does.

"I'm Azula. Well, you, of course you know that." The princess whose silver tongue ended a hundred year war finds herself tongue tied by a slave.

"I'm honored to meet you," chirps the slave. Azula smirks faintly. "I've always admired you. You're so pretty and confident and smart. It's inspiring."

She is completely earnest. Princess Azula is used to compliments, and she assumes they are genuine, but this slave seems to mean every word she says. Integrity is overrated, but Azula finds it refreshing.

"Will you sleep with me?" Azula breathes, her voice sweet and icy both.

"If you want me to," Ty Lee replies.

And she goes to bed with the daughter of the man she is used to sleeping with. It is perfect. Like Azula. Perfect like Princess Azula.

And so an illicit affair begins. Every night, when Azula is done with her incessant training, and Ty Lee has finished her beautiful acts of acrobatics and sex, they sleep together. Wake up together.

The cold, brutal Princess Azula can be so tender. The slave Azula saw as a hot body seems to be a human being.

"We're good together," Azula purrs as they lie there, weary and intertwined as the midnight lamp burns down.

"Your father would kill me if he knew." For the first time, she is not repulsively optimistic. Azula does not know what to say.

And Azula is completely honest when she says, "I would kill him before he could touch you."

They lie in silence.

 **(12) lose**

With Azula, Ty Lee knows that she will always lose. Whether it be at games, seeing as Azula changes the rules if she is not winning. In arguments, in which Ty Lee usually just gives up and smiles and nods. And in their relationship, due to the fact that she never speaks up about Azula's gaping flaws that she knows the perfect princess will never attempt to work on.

And part of the reason Ty Lee gives in so easily is not because she was tutored in being Azula's friend and told always to let her win, but because she lost Azula once and it was unbearable.

Although, she still isn't sure if she ever had her.

"Slow down. Deep breaths," Azula says irately as Ty Lee is panicking and tugging at her braid. "Use your words."

She leapt from bed in the dead of the night and started pacing. It is incredibly frustrating. Azula leans against her charcoal black pillow and only half looks up. This is not what she wants to deal with before the sun is even up.

"I had this dream that was real!" Ty Lee exclaims, probably waking the _entire_ palace. Azula rubs her temples.

"Join the club," Azula murmurs, thinking of her own relived memories. But when she wakes from a nightmare, she does not go into a complete panic.

"I never have nightmares. It's definitely an omen..." Ty Lee sits down on the windowsill.

"Omens aren't a real thing," Azula sighs. And neither are auras or vibrations.

Ty Lee loses that battle every time. Azula is coldly scientific, and under the impression that anyone who believes in more than the tangible is crazier than she is.

"Then why would I have a nightmare?" Ty Lee asks, as if Azula is stupid. And Azula closes her eyes. She has _no_ time for this nonsense. "It was about you. What if something terrible happens to you?"

Well, now Azula must admit she is interested in what she thought was mundane. Nightmares are the usual for her; she can't close her eyes without seeing something objectively terrifying, but other people having nightmares about her, now, that she can enjoy.

"I used to have nightmares, but when I sleep with you, I _don't_ ," Ty Lee says, as if it is perfectly normal.

Even more interesting.

"Sleeping with me makes you have sweet dreams? That's sickeningly cute," Azula sighs, sinking into the mattress.

"But I had a horrible one. Where I _lost_ you forever!"

Azula finds that statement pleasing. Nobody has ever been as reliant on her before as Ty Lee, and she imagined she would loathe it, but she quite enjoys it.

"Look, if you were going to lose me you would have already," Azula says with a small shrug. "You push me to my limits sometimes. And I've managed not to have you executed, nor have I committed suicide or anything. It's unlikely you'll lose me."

 _Unlikely_ , improbable, _Azula words_.

"You promise you won't abandon me," Ty Lee breathes, her ankles twitching towards the bed, but the rest of her not moving.

"Well, I don't _make_ prom ─ don't make that face ─ okay, _fine_ , I promise I won't abandon you. Now go to sleep." Azula rolls her eyes.

And is immediately joined by someone whose borderline panic attack was turned into some sort of frisky kitten impersonation.

 _Frisky_.

They fall into each other.

 **(13) pretty**

"You look really pretty, princess!" Ty Lee exclaims as Azula throws bolts of lightning at the desecrated drill. They are being ushered away, but none of the soldiers dare go near the princess's tantrum.

"Smooth," Mai snickers, crossing her arms. She smirks faintly.

Ty Lee has a thing for telling Azula she is pretty whenever she is angry. Rarely, does it work. Azula turns around, unsatisfied by her outburst, and turns to her friends.

"Why are _you_ dry?" Azula snarls as Mai stares at the dripping Azula and Ty Lee. They are coated entirely in wall sludge. _Ick_.

And Ty Lee takes matters into her own hands. She hurls a ball of sludge at Mai, splattering it all over her and her dark clothes. Mai spits out sludge and stares daggers. Azula shakes out her hair, the thick yellowish liquid colliding with Mai's neck.

"Guys, stop it," she snaps flatly. Ty Lee throws a snowball of sludge and it nearly knocks Mai off of her feet. Azula hurls an entire rock that Mai narrowly dodges. "You two are so _ugh_!"

"I don't know _how_ I'm going to explain this to my father," Azula sighs as she examines the destroyed drill. "I think that looks expensive..."

An hour later, Azula slips out of her wet clothes. Ty Lee has dried herself and sits wrapped in a towel at the fortress near the Serpent's Pass. No one is in a good mood, and Mai is pretending to be asleep.

"Are you watching me change?" Azula demands harshly and Ty Lee blushes. She _was_ ogling the princess's body.

"You, uh," Ty Lee stammers, rubbing her neck, "look really pretty princess."

Azula smirks.

 **(14) sleep**

Azula is not good at sharing. In fact, she absolutely loathes it.

Which is why when she sleeps, she wraps the blankets around her neck, so that her girlfriend cannot take them without strangling the princess. Ty Lee does not know why she does it and if it is conscious or not. Maybe Azula just deep down is so conniving that she does such infuriating things in her sleep. Ty Lee is not smart enough to figure out why she sleeps without blankets and a pillow half of the time.

Ty Lee creeps next to Azula and slips her body close to hers. She hopes to have some of the blankets tonight. She can feel Azula's heartbeat against hers, pulsing like the sun in the sky. They are intertwined and weary from passionate sex. She may be half broken these days as Zuko's ward, but she fucks like she has never been more alive.

Maybe she is only alive when she lies here in her bed and feels Ty Lee's heartbeat next to hers.

"I can't sleep without you next to me," Ty Lee says and Azula snorts derisively.

"I'm sure you tell that to all the girls," Azula whispers, her eyes sparkling with a particularly wicked gleam. Ty Lee presses her head against Azula's shoulder and her eyes close gently. Azula hesitantly touches her neck, their bodies united beneath a shared blanket and shared pillow.

"I don't think I could, princess," Ty Lee chirps and Azula shrugs. Maybe she is telling the truth. Azula struggles to trust anybody, even her girlfriend of years.

Secretly, Azula cannot sleep without Ty Lee either.

Not that she would admit such a weakness.

They share each other and the soft silk blanket tonight.

 **(15) oranges**

Azula is confused. More confused than she has ever been in her entire life. She sits at the breakfast table upon her return to the Fire Nation. The damage control from destroying priceless Fire Nation equipment and losing both Zuko and the Avatar was a challenge. It would have been impossible if it weren't for returning with the Kyoshi Warriors in chains and a plan to infiltrate Ba Sing Se that her father commended.

She picks apart an orange violently. It stains her sharp fingernails a yellowish tint, but she does not care. To top it off, she is not even hungry. Her appetite disappeared around the time she ran into the Avatar in New Ozai City.

How could she possibly have a crush on another girl? In fact, how could she possibly have a crush on _anyone_? She has a heart of stone. Nothing can _melt_ her the way those huge sparkling eyes do. It is simply impossible. Ty Lee is her friend, and despite her evident romantic interest in Azula, their relationship cannot produce an heir to the throne and that is all Azula cares about in a relationship.

Just pop out a Fire Lord to come after her and she never has to worry about romance again.

That doesn't happen with Ty Lee.

Even if they've kissed and made those _eyes_ at each other and Azula _dreams about her at night._

"You look troubled, little princess," and of course father walks in at the worst possible moment.

"I'm not, father," Azula replies, setting the orange aside as it bursts in juice and sprays citrus in her eye. Her fingers twitch until she starts dissecting another one. Ozai is fairly certain Azula just lied to him.

"Tell me what's wrong," he says and Azula knows she cannot win. She rips her latest fruity victim in half. Ozai recoils to not get splashed by the juice.

"I'm having _feelings_ ," Azula snarls, startling the Fire Lord.

"Well, that's a new development." He sits down across from her at the long, ornate table.

"I know, father." She looks on the verge of tears as she grabs another orange. He considers telling her to stop, but decides against it.

"Sometimes even you have feelings," he says, attempting to advise her on a topic other than firebending. He does not think he ever has before. "And if you freeze up, that's when your judgment is clouded by them. Take a deep breath and admit that you have feelings."

Azula frowns. As if _he_ would do that. But she cannot disrespect her father without presumably becoming horribly mutilated.

So she takes a deep breath, as if she is about to conjure lightning. It _did_ help slightly.

"I have feelings," she says halfheartedly. Ozai smirks and she swallows.

 _I have feelings and I am in love with a circus freak._

 _Wonderful._

She takes a bite of a ripped orange. It tastes sweet and sour and helps very little.

Admitting her feelings to someone other than herself and her father, on the other hand, is a much more complicated matter.

Princess Azula _hates_ being in love.

Especially when it involves admitting she does not like boys.

She doesn't think she likes oranges either.

 **e** nd


End file.
